


Speechless

by dontbitethesun



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Awkwardness, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-27
Updated: 2012-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-08 17:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/445622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontbitethesun/pseuds/dontbitethesun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean keeps trying to talk to his crush, but Cas leaves him speechless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Speechless

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cloudyjenn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudyjenn/gifts).



> Written for the prompt _Dean stalks Castiel around their mutual college campus. He thinks he's being sneaky, but he's seriously not _for__[dc_summerlovin](http://dc-summerlovin.livejournal.com/).

Dean hadn't meant to start following his crush around at the beginning of his sophomore year in college; it was one of those things that just sort of happened.

Even though the whole being into dudes thing is still fairly new to him, Dean hadn’t thought that asking out a guy would be all that different from asking out a girl. He finds that he is oh, so wrong when he first sets eyes on his crush. The guy is gorgeous with his dark, tousled hair, the way his blue button down shirt paired with khakis hangs just right on his body without revealing too much. Dean likes way he bites his lip and tilts his head as he studies his schedule, followed by the long, purposeful strides he takes towards Gallagher Hall.

Dean is entranced and his feet start moving all on their own, and he finds himself heading after the guy and following him up the stairs leading to Gallagher Hall’s main entrance. He can’t really justify going there, after all, his own class is a couple buildings down in the opposite direction in the Engineering Building, but Dean just can’t seem to make his feet stop carrying him forward.

Inside, the guy opens the door to room 165 and pauses to let a classmate enter before him. Dean’s feet finally stop moving inappropriately close to him, just inches away.

“Are you also in MATH 294?” the guy asks, and _oh god,_ his voice. Deep and rough, it _does things_ to Dean’s body. Not to mention his smile. He might say it was like sunshine after a cloudy day if he was into that poetic, flowery stuff, which needless to say he is not. It’s amazing though – the smile makes the guy that much more gorgeous and leaves Dean breathless.

Speechless too, it seems. His mouth works wordlessly. All he can manage is a brief negative shake of his head as he pushes his way back into the crowd and out the side doors, blushing fiercely.

That, he thinks, could have gone better.

*

Dean discovers – through the covert means of asking all his friends and a few of his classmates, as well as a little well positioned eavesdropping – that his crush’s name is Castiel Novak, also a sophomore, is a theology major, lives in Milton Hall, is currently single and of unknown sexual orientation. Also, Dean Winchester is obsessed with him.

“Ha ha ha, very funny,” Dean says after Victor, his lab partner for CHEM 101, informs him of this last bit. “What do you mean, he’s of ‘unknown sexual orientation’?”

“It means exactly what you think it means,” Victor answers. “He’s pretty studious, doesn’t really date, doesn’t talk about girls or guys, that kind of thing.”

“And in high school?”

“As far as I know, it was pretty much the same deal. No long distance relationship, if that’s what you're asking.”

“Huh,” Dean says. “So you think I have a chance?”

Victor shrugs. “I don’t know, dude,” he says, “but I have this radical idea.”

“What’s that?”

“Why don’t you ask him this stuff yourself? Use your words, dude.”

For Dean this seems to be easier said than done. Whenever he finds himself near Castiel, he just freezes. Despite his best intentions, he’s turned into Castiel’s stalker.

His brother seems to think that he’s psyching himself out. Dean thinks Sam is probably right. Also, that the situation is getting fairly desperate when he has to ask his sixteen-year-old baby brother for dating advice.

“Stop trying to think of something to say that’s cool and witty and will make him instantly fall madly in love with you,” Sam says when Dean is talking to him on the phone one Thursday night.

“All I’m asking for is one date,” Dean says, “That falling madly in love with me can wait for awhile. Maybe by the second date.”

“You might as well aim high,” Sam agrees.

Dean sighs. “It’s just that in high school, this was all so easy.”

On the other side of the line, Sam snorts.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Dean asks, slightly miffed. He’s fairly certain he wasn’t supposed to hear that, and adds a good-natured, “bitch.”

“You had it easy in high school, jerk,” Sam responds. “The girls all practically threw themselves at you.”

Dean beams, “Yeah, they did,” he says proudly. “I’m hot.”

“What I’m saying is, all you did was say yes or no. You don’t know how to work for it.”

“So I should what, try and woo him?”

“Woo him?” Sam laughs. “I think you should just concentrate on getting some basic, one syllable words out. Something along the lines of ‘hi, how are you? My name’s Dean. I’m not actually a stalker.’ ”

Dean vows to do better. The next time he sees Castiel – or Cas, as he’s started to think of him in his head – he’s heading into the campus convenience store, and Dean, of course, ducks in after him. He stands in the chip aisle while Cas selects a drink and a sandwich from the wall cooler, trying to formulate something to say that a) won’t make him sound like a complete loser and b) isn’t so complicated that he freezes and forgets what he meant to say half-way through and trails off mid-word.

He’s so intent that he doesn’t notice when Cas pays and leaves, and is only broken out of his reverie when the cashier pronouncedly clears his throat.

“Excuse me,” the guy says when Dean glances over, narrowing his eyes suspiciously like he’s just waiting for Dean to stuff a bag of Cheetos under his shirt. “Were you planning on buying anything or just standing there all day. ‘Cause there’s no loitering allowed.”

“Oh, um, sorry,” Dean says, and buys a pack of gum to prove he’d come in here to do more than stare at his crush or steal something.

He sighs as he walks out the door, squinting in the bright sunlight and wondering what to do with the forty-five minutes he still has to kill before his English requirement now that he’s lost his latest chance to talk to Cas using real, actual words.

He hears someone to his left say, “Hello,” and is surprised to find Cas walking up to him. He stands there in a panic, completely unprepared for this confrontation, but again, when he opens his mouth again, nothing comes out.

“You’re Dean, right?” he says, and oh wow, up close Cas has the most gorgeous blue eyes Dean has ever seen. And oh, there’s that smile again, and it finally sinks in that Cas doesn’t sound mad, not at all. “I heard that you liked me, but you seem a little shy so I thought I’d better make the first move.”

“You like tuna sandwiches,” Dean blurts the first thing that comes to mind, and yeah, it’s a little ridiculous, but he’s just happy to have actually _said_ something finally. Real, actual words.

“I do,” Cas nods. “I also happen to have an extra. Would you like to join me for lunch?”

“Yeah,” Dean says, grinning happily. Once he’d gotten over that embarrassing initial block, it seems the floodgate of words is now open. “Yeah, I’d love to.”

“So,” Cas says, leading Dean over to the picnic table he’d been sitting before. “Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?”

Dean does.

.end


End file.
